


The First Steps

by AmazingGraceless



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe, Angst, Bittersweet Ending, Experimental Style, F/M, Somewhat lore heavy, Tragedy, inspired by WandaVision, slight horror/creepy elements, this is gonna be really weird guys, what is grief but love perservering?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-26 03:48:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30099855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmazingGraceless/pseuds/AmazingGraceless
Summary: The story is supposed to end with the girl and the boy riding off into the sunset. Isn’t it?That’s what Rey thought too—so she changed the ending. Now the story goes something like this:Rey and Ben have eked out a new life on Naboo, where the world is strangely quiet. They become involved in dousing the last embers of the war and recreating the Jedi Order with twins on the way.As the twins grow up, however, the cracks begin to form in the new reality Rey created.
Relationships: Finn/Rose Tico, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 16
Kudos: 13





	1. Far Away and Long Ago

**Author's Note:**

> This story was inspired by WandaVision. It borrows the structure, some plot points, and the very general premise of a grieving woman creating an alternate world where she could live happily ever after with her lover, but it can't last. That said, I promise a bittersweet ending, and I'm not exactly doing the sitcom format.
> 
> Instead, we're trying to emphasize the style and aesthetics of the different kinds of stories Star Wars has told throughout time. Chapter 1 is inspired by the Original Trilogy and the more quiet storytelling, with a focus on the world and it being lived-in. How well I succeeded in capturing the OT in written form is to be determined.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this story!

There was nothing like a Naboo sunrise in the middle of Lake Country. The sun rose in its slow and fiery arc, reflected in the waterfalls and lakes surrounding the flowery fields in which Rey and Ben had made their home.

Some mornings, Rey would lie awake next to Ben’s sleeping form, just satisfied to feel his presence around her in the Force, to know that he was breathing and living beside of her.

She didn’t know why he wouldn’t be, but if there was anything Rey had learned from growing up on a desert, it was to be grateful for what you had. Otherwise, the sands of time might snatch it from you.

Other mornings, she was restless, not content to stay in their wedding bed when the sun was rising and she was awake, rising with it. Those mornings, like this one, she slipped out of bed, leaving her lover to his well-earned rest.

He deserved peaceful sleep, after all he had gone through.

She would walk softly, barefoot through the cottage they had built in the Lake Country of Naboo. The stone floor had already taken a little wear in the short while they had been here, but it was still shiny and good—like them.

She would enter the kitchen, with all of the appliances she never had growing up on Jakku. Ben had them, and was considerably less comfortable around the caff-maker in particular, but that didn’t matter.

Artoo would beep a hello in his Binary language, and Threepio would ask about waking Master Ben so they could have a nice breakfast at sunrise. Rey always declined and asked that Threepio try to be quieter—even if Ben somehow always managed to sleep through his shrill voice.

Rey would make caff, going through the rhythms of pouring it, adding the abundant water, and pressing the buttons to make it just strong enough for the two of them.

When it was done pouring into a mug for herself, she would take it and use the little stairs Ben had built for her to access the roof. She would sit there, watching the rising sun set all the water on fire as she sipped her caff.

It was quiet here, quieter than it ever had been in Jakku.

This was a time to meditate, to contemplate the newfound quiet and slow life she was becoming accustomed to. For she had never had the time to take it easy in her life. Existence on Jakku was a fight to the death, and she needed to keep moving and quickly to survive. After that, there had been the war and her training as a Jedi, and—

She tried not to think about the war too much, especially in its last days.

It would be high morning when Rey finally descended off the roof, in time to meet Ben, who had just awakened. He would call her sweetheart, take some of the caff she brewed, and add in blue milk for flavor.

Rey always wrinkled her nose at this—it was too close to green milk, for her taste.

Then Threepio would make breakfast—Rey never knew that the golden droid could, so it was somewhat of a shock when they first came to Naboo. But she did have to give him credit—he had acquired culinary genius in however long he had been with the Skywalker family.

What happened after breakfast varied from day to day. They might go hike out to the top of one of the waterfalls to have a picnic, they might read from the Jedi texts Rey had stolen from Ahch-To in a field of flowers. Ben might teach Rey how to swim in the abundant rivers and lakes of the waterworld.

On the very rare occasion when both were in an exceptionally good mood and high energy, they might take out their lightsabers and practice their lightsaber forms. Somehow their sabers felt slower, heavier here. They weren’t exactly doing the dances Rey remembered in the forest in the snow, in the rain on the wreckage of—

She always stopped her memory there. The rest was better left forgotten.

Their evenings were spent on the rooftop, dancing or counting stars, talking about the Force and about what they meant to each other.

And the world was quiet here.

There was an eeriness to the quiet sometimes, Rey decided as she glanced out the window, awake for once in the middle of the night.

They rarely saw anyone, rarely received any comms from anyone. Occasionally she might hear from Finn, Rose, Poe, or Chewy.

But they were off doing far more important things.

Sometimes, like this morning, when Rey crept up to see the sunrise, she wondered if she should be with them, helping save the galaxy yet again and finishing the war for good.

Jedi were supposed to be peacemakers and defenders of the galaxy and the Senate, after all.

Her lightsaber seemed to call to her on this morning, reminding her that she had a purpose once. She had once felt the fires of passion, the need to fight for what was good and right in the galaxy.

Some nights, she dreamed she was there again, in the thick of it. She had done so last night, imagining herself clad in black with a dual-edged yellow lightsaber, fighting alongside her friends.

But then, as always, she’d woken to see Ben’s face and knew that what she was doing here was far more important. They were healing and living happily ever after.

After all, this story had to have a happy ending, didn’t it? Where the boy and the girl ran into the sunset, after the evil was defeated?

Didn’t it?

On this morning, it was all Rey could do to keep in the quiet, and block out the rest of the world.

Unfortunately for her, the rest of the world came barreling in as she sipped her caff on the rooftop of her Lake Country cottage.

She recognized the hunk of garbage as soon as it was visible in the atmosphere.

A part of her heart soared, to see the ship she had once loved, the last remnants of the paternal figure she had once loved—coming back to her once again, like the Skywalker lightsaber had come to her in the woods on Starkiller Base.

The rest of her tensed in a distrust and hostility she didn’t entirely understand, resenting the ship for breaking through into her quiet world.

This part of her had hoped to never see the Millennium Falcon again.

It landed in the middle of the flowers, and out came the crew that Rey hadn’t seen in quite some time.

“Finn!” She jumped from the roof, landing safely in the grass, and ran to her former comrade.

“Rey!” He ran to her as well, embracing her. “It’s good to see you again!”

“It’s good to see you, too,” Rey admitted. They parted as Rose, Poe, BB-8, and Chewbacca finally caught up. She noticed an extra curve to Rose’s stomach. “Are you pregnant?”

Rose smiled. “We were surprised, too. I wish we were only here to catch up.”

Rey froze. “What do you mean?”

Poe sighed. “Unfortunately, we’re here on business. We have a mission for the last two Jedi in the galaxy.”

“You haven’t needed us before.” Rey normally would be happy to help her friends, to have that purpose of a fight and a battle again. But something told her, a small little voice in the back of her head, that if she let them come in with their problems, that this would beginning of the end.

She briefly frowned—that was strangely apocalyptic.

“Well, we need your help now,” Finn said. “Is Ben around?”

“Not awake yet.” Rey glanced back at the cottage and sighed. “I guess we can talk in the cottage—over hot chocolate, perhaps?”

“That would be lovely,” Rose agreed.


	2. Dark Empire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 is inspired by the early Bantam era of Legends, with series like the Thrawn Trilogy, Jedi Prince, and Crystal Star. Where everything was strange and anything could happen.

When Rey opened the door, she saw Ben standing in the kitchen—already brewing the hot chocolate.

“I thought you were asleep,” Rey said.

“I sensed company was coming.” He nodded towards the crew of the Millennium Falcon. “It’s good to see you all here.”

Poe grinned. “It’s good to see you, too, Solo. It’s been a long while.”

Rey knew, from the secrets Ben had shared on the rooftop under the stars, that he was talking about the childhood that they had shared on Corellia.

She had not had the luxury of friends growing up—what had that been like, she wondered?

“So you have a job for us?” Ben asked as he doled out the mugs.

“A job only for Jedi,” FInn answered.

“We’ve got the remnant of the First Order cornered,” Poe explained. “We followed them back to another secret planet that they cloaked in the Force with Sith sorcery..”

“Another one?” Rey almost did a spittake.

“Apparently.” Finn shrugged and took a sip.

“The weirder part is that everyone’s reporting to this guy who calls himself Paalpatine,” Poe continued. He stared into his hot chocolate for a moment, looking as if he was reconsidering all of his life choices. “With two a’s. That’s a thing with Force-sensitive clones, for some reason. They add an extra vowel for emphasis, to remind us that they’re different.”

“How considerate,” Ben snarked.

“He’s a younger Palpatine.” Rose pulled out a datapad. “This is a holo our spy drones caught.”

Rey’s heart skipped a beat at the bluescale figure that was projected by the datapad.

That was her father.

She knew his face.

“If we kill the Sith, it should be fairly easy for us to defeat the fleet and stamp out the First Order once and for all,” Poe said.

“He’s causing lightning storms with the Force all around the planet, now that the cloak’s been removed and all remaining Imperial Forces have retreated there,” Rose elaborated. She pressed a few buttons to then show the planet from the atmosphere. “You and Solo are good pilots—with the Force, you should be able to navigate us better to get in, and we want Jedi going up against Paalpatine.”

Ben didn’t hesitate. “I’m in.”

Rey felt a pocket of cold at her neck, a sinking feeling in her stomach. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Rey, the galaxy needs us, and we’re the last Jedi.” Uncertainty danced in his hazel eyes. “Is it because he’s your family, or—“

“No, no. . . “ Rey tried to put her finger on why she felt this way. But no answer presented itself to her, no evidence to cling to. “I’ve just got a bad feeling about this.”

She took a deep breath, thinking of the lightsabers in the wooden trunk at the foot of hers and Ben’s bed. How they called to her, sang of glory and purpose.

When her eyes opened, she was resolute. “But you’re right. We are the Last Jedi—count us in.”

* * *

Rey dressed for practicality—-which naturally meant a black sleeveless jumpsuit and a white scarf that could be drawn up into a hood, covering her three-buns hairstyle.

Ben had also chosen a jumpsuit, his having a myriad of pockets and resembling Poe’s flightsuit if not for the sharp green color.

It was the first time Rey had seen him in anything other than black, even here.

Was it his favorite color, like hers?

How did she not know this?

_We had so little time—_

Rey’s frown deepened. That didn’t make sense—

“Everything alright, sweetheart?”

“I’m fine.” Rey smiled back at her lover and opened the trunk.

But the lightsabers did not look how she remembered. She took the first one—a saber-staff, like—

Her breath hitched as she turned on the blades. To her relief, it was a bright, sunny yellow, like her favorite wildflowers that she grew in the box outside their bedroom window.

“I feel like. . . This wasn’t its color before.”

Rey turned to answer Ben—only to see that he wasn’t talking about her lightsaber, but rather Leia’s. The hilt was the same, but it wasn’t the shining blue she remembered.

It was a ruby-red, closer to a shade of pink, perhaps, but it was still rather unsettling.

“Of course my mother would make an unorthodox lightsaber.” Ben smiled, looking exactly like his old man as he did. But Rey still registered the uncertainty, the fear in his eyes.

“It’s not a corrupted crystal,” Rey said. “It just simply is. . . I guess it doesn’t matter.”

“I guess not, either.”

* * *

They rejoined the rest of the party in the _Falcon_. The controls were all too familiar, like greeting an old friend. With Ben as her co-pilot, everything felt good, felt right.

Still, she felt a jolt of fear as they took off, leaving Naboo and the Lake Country behind.

They joined up with the nearest hyperspace route and went into hyperspace, following Poe’s star charts, dutifully noted in Rose’s datapad. Afterwards, they navigated to right outside the missing moon.

“Welcome to Paalpatine’s lost planet,” Finn said. “They’re calling it Caesaria.”

“Bothan spies have determined the location of Paalpatine in the time since we left Naboo.” Rose hurriedly flicked through messages and screens, before projecting a small replica of the planet before them. “He’s in the palace the original Emperor or whatever version we fought on Exegol made for himself and his family.”

“I’ll punch in the coordinates,” Ben offered.

It was good that he had offered to do that, for Rey felt numb, and like there was a loose thread within her that the phrase, ‘his family’ tugged at.

Paalpatine was part of her family, technically. She was the original’s granddaughter, he had killed his own son and daughter-in-law and—

Rey forced herself back to reality with a jolt of energy coursing through her body. She had a job to do.

“Get ready!” Rey declared. “It’s going to be a choppy ride!”

She said that, but to be fair, with Ben flying at her side theride could only be easy. Gliding like a leaf on the wind, they weaved between the lightning strikes in Paalpatine’s shield of storms in the Force, slipping through and towards the gaudy palace that was very visible from a certain point at Caesaria’s atmosphere.

They neatly parked in the center of an empty courtyard. Standing in the great arch leading into the palace, however, was their foe.

Despite seeing the holo earlier, Rey was still taken aback at the sight of her father standing there before her as she ignited her saber-staff.

“My brother’s child has come to take her empire back,” Paalpatine laughed. “The dark still calls to you, child!”

“It doesn’t.” Rey shook her head. That way lay in the places that would not be named, the places that deserved to be forgotten for how they wronged her. Then she frowned. “Your brother? I don’t understand. You’re the clone of my grandfather—“

“That’s an overly sentimental simplification of the situation.” Paalpatine drew his scarlet lightsaber, and he and Rey began to circle each other like Loth wolves. Except for that Ben stayed by her side, like a loyal kath hound.

“Your father was a clone, child, just as I am—and we were both initially rejected by our father, our creator.” Rey could feel the bitterness radiating off of him in the Force. “He chose to take on his own strange name, Ken, and run off with our father’s Hand, Mara—“

“This isn’t really because of a contingency plan, is it?” Rey couldn’t help her more sympathetic tone. “This isn’t because you believe in the cause of the First Order. it’s because you want to please him, or to prove to him that you were worthy after all.”

“And look at me—I’ve done what my father could not!” Paalpatine gestured around him. “And now, the Last Jedi will die here!”

“No!” Ben and Rey twirled their lightsabers in perfect sync, catching the Force lightning that Paalpatine was stripping from the planet’s atmosphere. The lightning rattled their sabers, but they held on tight, side by side, together. But they wouldn’t be able to hold out for long.

“Finn, Chewy, Rose, Poe, now!”

Paalpatine only looked in time to watch as a series of blaster bolts volleyed towards him.

“Oh no” were the last words of the clone of the mighty Darth Sidious.

The storms vanished from the atmosphere of Caesaria,and Poe grabbed his commlink.

“This is Black Leader to all available units—the clone is dead, we can go forward with the attack.”

Poe then looked to Rey. “We might as well clear out the palace, partially so that we’re safe from the firestorm.”

“Let’s get going.”

* * *

It wouldn’t be until the trip back, to Coruscant, when Rey would consider the magnitude of what had happened.

She had finally learned her parents’ names.

Mara and Ken.

Her father had been like her, choosing his name for himself, choosing who he would be.

He had turned away from his father and rejected the legacy of darkness, as she had finally managed the strength to do in the end. . .

She staved off those memories, choosing less painful ones. Of her father carving a toy ship for her. Of her mother’s last words.

_I am not nothing. I was loved._

Ben entered the captain’s chambers of the Falcon just in time to see her as she lifted a tooka doll from one of the boxes in the hold.

“That belonged to me, when I was a child.” There was a ghost of a smile on Ben’s face. “Dad liked to keep it here, for all the long, boring runs.”

“Is smuggling really so boring?” Rey teased as she turned the worn and well-loved plush over and over in her hands. It reminded her of the toy doll her mother had fashioned for her, of twine and scrap fabrics to resemble a Rebel pilot.

“You’d be surprised.” Ben sat down next to her on the bed, looking around with the bittersweetness characteristic of nostalgia. “He did his best though. He cared more than I knew—until it was too late, that is.”

“It wasn’t too late,” Rey said softly, lifting a hand to his face.

For a moment, he looked blue—her hand nearly paused through his skin.

But then she felt his warmth, his presence there—it was a hallucination, a glitch—

She lifted a hand to his face and he smiled, placing his hand over hers, reaching out for their souls to mingle in the Force.

Then he frowned.

“When were you going to tell me?”

“Tell me what?”

“About the twins.”

“The—“

Rey frowned, and reached within herself in the Force. There, in her core, were two sparks of life, steadily growing.

 _Twins_.

Twin _Jedi_.

“Oh, Ben!”

He embraced her. When they separated, the look on his face was oddly contemplative.

“Maybe we should stick around longer on Coruscant,” he said. “There’s a lot of work to do—including restarting the Jedi Order. This time, we can work with the Senate, to create an institution that better serves the Republic. So our children can grow up knowing how to control their power, and no one’s children will grow up without the knowledge of how to control their power.”

“I like it,” Rey admitted, thinking of the Jedi texts she’d stolen from Ahch-To. “Those old books aren’t doing very much on Naboo, after all.”

Tears welled up in her eyes—it was more joy than she’d ever imagined. Knowledge of her parents names, that they had not meant to abandon her, friends, a purpose, a man who loved her and a family on the way.

It was a happier ending than she’d ever dreamed of or deserved.


	3. Sins of the Father

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And chapter 3 is inspired by the Prequel era, with politics, shiny aesthetics, and pregnancy. If pregnancy is a squick, you’ll want to skip on to chapter 4 when it comes out.

The next eight months were a different sort of domesticity than what Rey knew on Naboo in the Lake Country. While Rey and Ben would be advocating for the recreation of the New Jedi Order in the Senate, they were to live in the penthouse apartment that once belonged to Padme Amidala.

Threepio and Artoo accompanied them of course—and Ben told her it was just like his childhood, so many years ago.

For the first three months, they would rise with the sun, have Threepio make them a pot of caff, and then they would dress in bright and intricate clothes unlike those Rey had ever known, then go into the Senate chamber to debate the history of the Force and to advocate for the Jedi Order’s role in the galaxy.

Those who had fought alongside Rey in the war at least wanted to see the return of the Order—but many were still cautious after the past two failures in living memory.

Still, Rey was sure she had almost had them convinced when she passed into the second trimester and started to encounter some health difficulties.

“It really is a miracle that you have not run into trouble with your pregnancy sooner, Mistress Rey,” Threepio said when they went to the medbay. “From what you and Master Ben have recounted, your upbringing in such a distant place as Jakku really should have more detrimental effects on your physical and mental health—“

“Thanks Threepio,” Rey groaned. “So I have to take it easy now?”

“For the twins,” Ben said, placing a hand on her stomach. She placed her hands over his and smiled for a moment.

“I don’t think I could ever take it easy.”

“You did on Naboo,” Ben pointed out.

“That was different.” There had been more effort taken there than Ben would ever know—

“Well, with Paalpatine’s return and your appearance, there has been the legal matter of Emperor Palpatine’s estate,” Ben offered. “Most of it has been reclaimed by the Republic—but there are some things that are more personal that were never claimed.”

She could make her claim as the madman’s granddaughter.

She had wanted to distance herself from him—but it was a worthy project.

“I’ll go to the former Imperial Palace to claim my inheritance,” Rey decided. “You’ll have to fight for the Jedi Order in my stead, sweetheart.”

“I don’t think I could fight as fiercely as you, on or off the battlefield.” A smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth, resembling his father more than he ever had. “Just be careful, and go when you feel well, alright?”

“I’m pregnant, not dying.” Rey rolled her eyes—only to remember that Padme Amidala had died birthing the Skywalker twins. There was a story that her life force had been stolen by her grandfather, to bring Vader back to life.

“I know that.” Still, there was a sobriety in Ben that Rey could not stand to see.

“Hold me,” she commanded.

He did so—and for a moment, she wondered how much longer this could last.

* * *

It was three days later when Rey would visit the Imperial Palace for the first time, accompanied by a lawyer who was bold enough to intervene in such strange politics as the inheritance of the woman who in another lifetime would have been their empress.

“Most of the estate has remained untouched,” Lilac Nani explained as she walked through. “Sorry about all the dust—hopefully that won’t be bad for the baby—“

“Babies,” Rey corrected. It was strange to say such a thing aloud. To think that in five more months that she would be a mother—when she could barely remember hers.

Mara.

“But yes, all of this furniture could be yours, so we can decide what pieces you might want to keep, which to get rid of,” Nani continued. “If you want to look around a bit, you can—the building is owned by the Senate, but we haven’t figured out a use for it, couldn’t before the second war broke it. But you might as well see what you want while I draft up the paperwork where you can make your claim.”

“Alright.”

Rey drifted through the rooms on the first floor of the palace, running her fingers over the dusty tables like she was a ghost come back to life. She had done so until she was quite lost and could not figure out where she had left Lilac Nani.

She started opening doors, leaving them open in hopes of at least figuring out where she had already been. She passed a closet—only to hear a scream as she passed.

She stopped, hand on her lightsaber hilt as she flung the door open.

She darted back as a cold draft passed through, and out stepped her shadow self.

Rey was no longer on Coruscant, in the Imperial Palace.

She was in the flooded ruins of the Death Star, back to the last days of the war—

“You’re not real,” Rey managed to spit through gritted teeth. “You’re not a part of me, not anymore. I left you behind on Exegol—“

She left too many parts of her behind on Exegol—

Her shadow-self flickered, glitched—then disappeared entirely.

“Here she is, Lilac.”

Rey turned to see someone she had not expected to see, that she had also left behind in the last days of the war—

“Leia,” Rey whispered. She then straightened, clipping her lightsaber to her belt. “I mean, General Organa. I wasn’t expecting you.”

There was a mischievous light to the older woman’s brown eyes as she took Rey’s hand.

“Were you? Did you think I wouldn’t like to spend some time with my daughter-in-law?”

“I mean, I didn’t exactly exchange vows with Ben—“

“Of course you did.” Leia laughed, and when she removed her hand form Rey’s, there was a new ring on Rey’s fourth finger that she did not remember being there before.

“Come on, let’s get the paperwork home, then get you home.”

* * *

In the remaining months after, their routines settled again, with Leia now spending time at the dinner table with them and giving Rey advice. Meanwhile, Rey was arranging most of the items of Palpatine’s to be sold—fetching her an important sum of credits for their little family and for the Jedi Order.

As for Ben, he had taken after the women in his family more than she’d originally thought—he was a Senator’s son through and through. There would be a Jedi Order and an academy—there was just a matter of finding the right location.

Rey still woke with the rising sun just to talk to her lover—now husband, in the blink of an eye—about anything and everything. The philosophy of the Force, what it would mean to become parents of a new generation of Jedi.

In one of these mornings, they decided their Academy would be on Yavin IV, among the old rebel base.

In another, they decided the names of their children—Jacen and Jaina, names that they could grow into on their own.

Names that were only their own.

Both of them knew all too well what it was like to live up to a name.

* * *

Rey gave birth to Jaina and then Jacen in a maternity center on Coruscant, with Leia and Ben holding her hands through it all.

It was a week later when they left for Yavin IV. Rey had enough of legal business, fancy dinners and gaudy clothing—she was ready to be a mother to her Jedi.

And Ben was ready to be a father, for as long as he would still live.


	4. Light of the Jedi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4 is inspired by the Jedi Academy series, as well as the video game and trilogy of the same name, with a focus on the next generation of Jedi, the power of lightsabers, and the renewal of the Empire/First Order.

Twelve years came and went, sooner than either Ben or Rey would have liked to admit. Their Jedi Order grew from a few fledgeling adult students to an entire academy, with families of Jedi like the Horns and many children from all across the galaxy learning to harness their light.

Their own little Jedi, Jacen and Jaina, had grown too, now a part of a class of Jedi.

Jaina was bold and brash, where Jacen was reserved and gentle. While Jaina was often covered in engine grease and fixing and creating all sorts of little machines, Jacen would be befriending probably-venomous forms of wildlife natural to Yavin IV.

They had their friends—Tahiri, Zekk, Lowbacca, Tenel Ka, and Valin and Jysella Horn. Of course, they had those they didn’t get along with too, like Alema Rarr and Raynar Thul. But it was expected that children wouldn’t get along with everyone.

And now they were twelve years old, and ready to get their first lightsabers.

“The lightsaber is the Jedi’s most important tool, besides the Force,” Ben said from where he stood in front of the twins’ class. “Your weapon should be your last resort to solve a problem—but when you do, you want to use it judiciously, and as little as possible.”

He held up the lightsaber he inherited from Leia.

Rey smiled from where she watched, leaning against a ruined pillar of the former Massassi structures. The children watched in awe as Ben swung his saber.

“Wield it like a feather, and not a stick,” Ben said as he held his aloft. “This is one of the most powerful weapons in the galaxy—and you are about to make your own.”

He then deactivated his lightsaber. “There are deposits of kyber crystals all around the forest—some of them may. Call to you. Or perhaps you already have a crystal you have bonded with, a gift from family or friends?”

“There’s a crystal cave that’s pretty clear of anything but bugs a mile from here, in the mountain to the west,” Rey clarified as she stepped forwards. “You have the rest of the day to acquire a crystal and bond with it—tomorrow, we can begin on the construction of a lightsaber.”

“Yes, Master Rey!”

She couldn’t help but smile at the chorusing children. She hadn’t seen many of them on Jakku, but she’d rather liked them. She had surprised herself still with how maternity suited her.

“Class is dismissed.” There was a twinkle in Ben’s eye. “I need to speak with the Grandmaster on some private matters.”

The children flocked off, including their own, in a hurry to go and find their kyber crystals.

“You don’t think it’s too dangerous for them to go to the Crystal Caves, do you?” Ben asked.

“Oh, no, the caves are often patrolled by our Knights, they’re fine,” she assured him as she wrapped her arms around him. “You did wonderfully today.”

“It was a really simple lecture, much easier than trying to teach them the principles of diplomacy.”

“Hey, they’re doing better than the Senate does at that.”

Ben chuckled, his hand on the back of her neck. “We’ve got pretty great kids.”

“We do.” Rey grinned, leaning in to kiss him.

She never tired of his kiss—which always carried with it the desperation, the gratitude, the relief of that first one—

Rey pulled back.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine.” It had been a long time since she had last lied when saying that. “You said you had other matters to speak with me about?”

Ben frowned, obviously sensing that something was wrong. But he didn’t press her.

“Yes, there’s been a call from the Senate, they want more Jedi patrolling around Carida and Crseih—there’s been more Imperial activity than usual,” Ben said. “Other places like Korriban and Vjun, too.”

“Nothing good ever comes from Korriban,” Rey groaned. “I thought by now we would have eradicated the last remnants of the Empire and the First Order.”

“So did I.” Ben sighed, and they broke away, starting to walk through the ruins. “I wonder if we’ll always have an empire somewhere in this galaxy.”

“I doubt it—but we’ll make sure to send more Jedi out,” Rey promised. “It will all work this time.”

Ben was quiet, but nodded.

“For our children,” she added. “For them, this will all work out, may the Force be with us.”

* * *

“We might as well just go straight to the Crystal Caves,” Valin argued. “Yes, Master Ben said that there are deposits all over the jungle—but we know there are lots of dangerous animals through there!”

“We’d have to go through the jungle to get to the caves anyway,” Jaina pointed out.

“Yes, but it makes no sense to wander around when Master Rey told us exactly where to find kyber crystals to bond to,” Tenel Ka said. “We would be better off to just go ahead to the caves.”

“She has a point, Jaya.” Jacen looked up from the nearby tree he was examining. “Besides, it’s going to be a hike—we’d be better to get started.”

“Fine,” Jaina groaned. “I guess we’ll do the boring option.”

And so the party began their hike out into the jungles of Yavin IV. They passed through leaf-covered remains of ruins and starfighters, tracking the history of the galaxy. It seemed that it all came back to Yavin, somehow. One way or another.

The planet was alive and thrumming with the Force, in the myriad forms of life that claimed all attempts at settlement and machinery.

Perhaps that was why it was so strange, when they came across the quiet, the lifeless pavilion.

“What is this place?” Tahiri wrinkled her nose as they approached the ruins. Not even the plants dared to grow over it. There was water, a moat over obsidian, with ivory steps to the temple standing in the center.

“I’ve never seen it before,” Jaina admitted, looking to Jacen.

“Neither have I—Mum and Dad never mentioned it.” Jacen looked at the open threshold inside the temple.

“I don’t think we should be here,” Valin said. “Something’s wrong with this place.”

“That’s exactly why we should check this place out,” Jaina decided. “We can then tell Mum and Dad about it—and what threat might be inside. It will be our job as Jedi to fight evil.”

“We’re not Jedi yet,” Zekk said in a small voice, even as he started to cross the moat on the little steps.

Still, the party continued, entering the temple.

It was completely empty, except for a featureless obsidian box that none of them could lift, not even Tenel Ka and Lowbacca with their combined exceptional strength.

So they left it alone.

“This is boring,” Tahiri declared. “Let’s go find our crystals.”

Jaina agreed—and yet, right before she left the dark and the quiet, she couldn’t help but feel as if she was being watched.

* * *

The sun was starting to set on the mountain when Rey saw the class had returned, after scattering all their different directions, with kyber crystals in their hands.

“Did you all have fun today?” Rey asked as she scanned over everyone’s heads—they were all here.

“Yes,” chorused the children.

“Good.” Moments like these were why she loved being the Grandmaster of the New Jedi Order. “Go get ready for dinner, and try to sleep tonight. Tomorrow, I will teach you myself how to construct a lightsaber.”

* * *

Jaina tossed and turned that night, haunted by dreams of a dark figure and ancient languages she dd not understand, but she comprehended all the same.

_There is no good or evil, just power, and those too weak to seek it._

Along with it, the sound of her great-grandfather’s infamous mask.


End file.
